What We Know and What We Don’t Know About Swedish Labor Market History: Reflections on Spelets Regler

Erik Bengtson, Tobias Karlsson

Abstract

In this paper we reflect upon the state of Swedish labor market history by using Christer Lundh’s synthesis Spelets regler as a point of departure. In particular, we discuss three main themes: (1) the relationship between economic structures and institutions, (2) power and income distribution, and (3) flexibility and segmentation. In future research we would like to see stronger empirical evidence of links between structural and institutional changes, more elaborated studies of the effects of institutional change on the functional distribution of incomes and increased awareness of how patterns of segmentation and flexibility strategies have evolved over time.